Mar 10, 2008
Lemon Battery
The lemon battery, it’s a perennial kids science favourite and perfect for a rainy Saturday morning (if it’s not raining why aren’t you kids outside playing instead of surfing the Pipes on the InterWebs, huh?) Anyway, with a single lemon, a few bits of wire, a copper penny, and a zinc-galvanized nail you can generate electricity (just over one volt).
However, one lemon is not enough to light an LED or power a pocket calculator, for that you’ll need not only more voltage but a higher current, which means more power - Power (Watts) equals voltage (in Volts) multiplied by current in Amps. Four lemons produce enough power to make an LED glow dimly. But, that low current is probably not going to be enough to power your iPod, which is a higher current device. For that you will need what is called a lithium-ion battery and iPods (other mp3 players are available) usually come with such a battery built in, so there’s no need to worry about carrying a dozen lemons and a bag of nails with you for portable music.
The following video explains the ins and outs, quite literally, of making a lemon battery, it’s very methodical and shows you the precise steps needed even if the narration is a bit stiff.
More science videos from the same labs available here
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Johnx said,
March 10, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Ahhhh! I knew the Prius was a lemon car!
There are laws about lemon cars.
David Bradley said,
March 10, 2008 at 2:20 pm
When I worked in the US, which is two decades ago, we rented a car from a place called Lemon Rentals, no one was surprised that it broke down after just ten miles.
db
Jon said,
March 14, 2008 at 12:45 pm
According to the entertaining and informative program QI, you can get a current from a ready-made lasagne, or indeed any edible electrolyte with suitable “oomph”. If i recall correctly, however, they said you’d need a lasagne the size of a football pitch to light a bulb.
- Jon
David Bradley said,
March 14, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Yes, sounds about right. My 13y old son would see that as a challenge blending his love of football with his love of lasagne ;-)
db
Henry said,
March 15, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Well, better to search for more lemons with “higher voltage”!
I recently visited a blog about science which captured a bit of my attention. Only perfect thinkers can grasp the main idea behind some poetries which were presented ironically. Check this out:
http://mysteriousscience.blog.com
I don’t know why the author named it as “mysterious” - well, really mysterious!
David Bradley said,
March 17, 2008 at 9:10 am
Henry, looks like nonsense to me.
db